Absolute number one mistake people make on directionals is to have too much weight too far back. They ride along with the nose of the board flapping up and down and waste half their power.

The solution is simple. Get your weight forward. Move your head and shoulders forward. If the wind is light then move your back foot forward towards the middle of the board. You shouldn't have to move your front foot unless you're a total klutz and have it in the wrong place to start with.

You can go strapless if you want, but it's not something I would recommend. It makes sense in clean surf. It makes much less sense in choppy slop. Even worse, incompetent strapless riders in a crowded break are a menace. They constantly fall off and dick around in the middle of everything and get in the way.

An expert strapless rider is awesome. But if you're expert then you wouldn't be asking these questions.

Even if you ride straps, you need the skill and confidence to move your feet around on the board and do whatever it takes to have a great session. Quickly and smoothly swapping stance are essential skills.

Point #1 Yep that was me!

As far as straps go, I like no straps, but put my front one on because I'm not having great success turn yet and I pretty much have to waterstart after every reach. Once I get my turns dialed, ill probably forgo the straps just because I am finding that I do like to move around the board.

You need to know , that if you buy new nowadays , you will probably end up with a 1000€ board build ( in the best case) with a wood venner and maybe a thicker layer on the deck , that you will dent or crack under the heels in the near future no matter if you go with straps or not . Surfkiteboards market trend , goes to lighter and lighter equipment , the excuses are the need of low weight boards for strapless freestyle ....
Also the majority of boards , are pulled in tails with thruster setup ,again maybe ok for braking a board for strapless freestyle in higher winds but to draggy for anything else....get one with generous width and tail for learning....
And the same goes for kites , lighter and lighter with the excuse of foiling while companys take us our money for mediocre products that don' t last in time...
If you plan to go with straps, take a good look at the market and do it yourself a favour and get a PVC sandwiched board ...
Avoid boards with Multibox fins ,don't feed the trolls, go genuine FCS2 or Futures and you will be ok with replacement fins.......

I would rec getting a used kite specific surfy. There’s plenty out there cheap, like the slingy celeritas, naish global for example. A regular surfboard may actually hinder your progression, and turn you off from riding one.

-No straps, no leash (if you learn with straps you will always have that crutch)

This is definitely one point of view. So here we go with the strap fight.

Learn to jibe with a high success rate with the straps first. Because it is harder to jibe with straps, you will be able to jibe pretty much automatically when you take off the straps - if you already have the strapped jibe down. This is the most important part of breaking out of the mentality that one way is cooler, better, or more correct than the other. If you can turn around both strapped and strapless, you will be much better off in making a decision on what you like the best.

Learning the jibe strapless, then going back to strapped will be like learning to jibe all over again with new rules, and less foot placement options. If you find yourself in this trap, you may just want to stick with strapless until it gets boring for you.

Strapped vs. Strapless is the most hyped up argument in kitesurfing. It holds more people back from doing what they would actually have more fun with than any other mentality/belief in this sport.

Strapped is a great way to do everything with a surfboard. You can actually shift your weight with straps more so than without, if you learn how to pry up, twist, or use inward/outward pressure on the straps. This maximizes the performance available in the kite system, instead of limiting it like in strapless.

Strapless is a great way to simulate prone surfing, or rather the ride you would get after getting up on a surfboard without a kite. The limitations of strapless really force you to focus on simpler wave rides like smacking the lip, and bottom turns. One great skill that strappless kitesurfing develops is "limiting your kite power", instead of "maximizing your kite power (and entire board/you/kite system)" like with straps. To me, the skill of kite power limitation that strapless develops, seems to very much translate to hydrofoiling kite skill.

Try both and figure out what you like. Don't let someone else tell you what the "right way" is. I bought into the hype of one of these options at the beginning, but fortunately, I learned the jibe strapped first. This let me decide myself, regardless of the hype I had bought into before doing either.

And downwinders strapless are the way to go so you can minimize the handicap of not having straps. If you go strapless, definitely focus on downwinders. This will allow you to really get a feel of how not having straps makes you focus on the simpler aspects of wave riding, but still allows you to catch tons more waves than you ever could prone surfing. And don't forget the flat water strapless too. Kick flips and strapless rolls are huge accomplishments when strapless.